A few years back I shared a delightful article that demonstrated how the Finnish baby box lead to the Finland having the best infant mortality rates in the world. This first article itself is the story now. This great BBC article with geographic themes took hold and the act of this article getting shared around the world inspired similar initiatives--this type of diffusion shows layers and layers of good geography present in this viral phenonomen.

I can't tell if this is real or satire. If it is real, there are people in Poland wasting court time with absolute silliness. What changes if they become an official religion? What happens to people that need to be Gluten-Free? Can they sue them for discrimination? Absolute insanity.

"For the first time in human history, more of the world’s 6.8 billion people live in cities than in rural areas. That is an incredible demographic and geographic shift since 1950 when only 30 percent of the world’s 2.5 billion inhabitants lived in urban environments.

The world’s largest cities, particularly in developing countries, are growing at phenomenal rates. As a growing landless class is attracted by urban opportunities, meager as they might be, these cities’ populations are ballooning to incredible numbers.

A May 2010 Christian Science Monitor article on “megacities” predicted that by 2050, almost 70 percent of the world’s estimated 10 billion people—more than the number of people living today—will reside in urban areas. The social, economic and environmental problems associated with a predominantly urbanized population are considerably different from those of the mostly rural world population of the past."

The majority of megacities are in the developing world, with the exception of places like New York and Tokyo, best showing how the face of the world is changing. Developing countries are on their paths to becoming major powers, such as Calkutta for example. As an enlarging city, more and more citizens are flocking to the abundance of jobs in the city which thus increases India's development as a result of the growing city and thus leads to a cycle of growth as demand for more jobs increases as the city grows. Megacities are thus a symbol of the developing world and can be used in human geography as symbols of development.

Why do commentators, like Chicken Little, treat this worldwide trend as a disaster, even collective suicide? It could be because declines in fertility rates stir anxieties about power: national, military and economic, as well as sexual. In reality, slower population growth creates enormous possibilities for human flourishing. In an era of irreversible climate change and the lingering threat from nuclear weapons, it is simply not the case that population equals power, as so many leaders have believed throughout history. Lower fertility isn’t entirely a function of rising prosperity and secularism; it is nearly universal.

The dwindling birth rates may be seen as negative to some in a sense of power insecurities, but the reality is that it is great for economic growth and prevents population issues. With high birth rates, movement tends to be higher towards immigration while low birth rates mainly have movement towards urban spaces.

New York is such a diverse city that it changes constantly, but in this moment it is now becoming a hub for condos and botiques. Two photographers have set out to take several pictures throughout the city to help preserve some of its classical elements.

"Mexico City is a giant laboratory of urban morphology. Its 20 million residents live in neighborhoods based on a wide spectrum of plans. The colonial center (above) was built on the foundations of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire. The old city was on an island in Lake Texcoco. The lake was drained to prevent flooding as the city expanded.

Even thought this article is more picture based it shows a interesting example of what Mexico City is all about and how it is laid out. With the different layouts it's just amazing how many different one there are. There are normal standard rectangle and square layouts. One was even built on a drained lake in order to expand the city and prevent the city from flooding. One picture has what looks like a maze of roads and an interesting convergence of where the roads meet up. Overall with so many different layouts it could get confusing to one who may not be from there.

While this scoop may reflect neighborhoods in Mexico, I feel like there is alot to be learned from it. The way human activity greatly affect the geographical landscape is undeniable in these photos. Areas were at one point a beautiful lake, trees and wild life inhabited, are now concrete jungles. In most of these images you cannot even see a patch of grass.

I would be excited to see how specific neighborhood cultures develop considering the close proximity of people. I think that could be a really neat study. Is it like America in the early 1900's, segregation of religions, languages, and ethnic backgrounds? Or are the people close, and friendly?

It is interesting to see how Mexico City is set up, very busy, very populated, very tight. In the satellite photos of Mexico City, you can point out a few interesting things, like one being the different class of people. Some people have landscapes, while other people just have neighbors that live close enough to shake hands with through windows. Something like this goes to show who has money, who does not. You can definitely see grid type patterns in the way housing was built, it appears as if geometry took some play in the shape of the city. The one thing that caught my eye on the satellite map and I find very cool, is the red line of canopies from ambulantes (street vendors).

AmaMany of us only know the world's most famous landmarks through images that show them in all their beautiful, historical glory. The world has changed since these structures were built, so the surrounding landscapes might not be what you'd expect.

For the past two years, photographer Lisa Kristine has traveled the world, documenting the unbearably harsh realities of modern-day slavery. She shares hauntingly beautiful images -- miners in the Congo, brick layers in Nepal -- illuminating the plight of the 27 million souls enslaved worldwide. (Filmed at TEDxMaui)

The old labels no longer apply. Rich countries need to learn from poor ones.

BILL GATES, in his foundation’s annual letter, declared that “the terms ‘developing countries’ and ‘developed countries’ have outlived their usefulness.” He’s right. If we want to understand the modern global economy, we need a better vocabulary.

Mr. Gates was making a point about improvements in income and gross domestic product; unfortunately, these formal measures generate categories that tend to obscure obvious distinctions. Only when employing a crude “development” binary could anyone lump Mozambique and Mexico together.

It’s tough to pick a satisfying replacement. Talk of first, second and third worlds is passé, and it’s hard to bear the Dickensian awkwardness of “industrialized nations.” Forget, too, the more recent jargon about the “global south” and “global north.” It makes little sense to counterpose poor countries with “the West” when many of the biggest economic success stories in the past few decades have come from the East.

All of these antiquated terms imply that any given country is “developing” toward something, and that there is only one way to get there.

Interactives: War and Refugees

UNHCR has been attempting to count the world's refugees since it was created. If you want to find out which years resulted in the worst displacement, which were the biggest countries of origin and which were the biggest countries of asylum, use the interactive map.

This article features an interactive map that displays the numbers of IDPs (internally displaced persons) made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. You are able to look through the years and see the varying amounts of IDPs, as well as the countries that produced the most of them and which continue to.

This goes along with the human geography theme of refugees and IDPs, and this is a very helpful article in providing a simple way to see an overview of where and to what extent this most occurs.

Over the course of human history, thousands of languages have developed from what was once a much smaller number. How did we end up with so many? And how do we keep track of them all? Alex Gendler explains how linguists group languages into language families, demonstrating how these linguistic trees give us crucial insights into the past.

Showing the evolution of world languages. Tthousands of languages have developed over time and in this video he talk about the birthplace of diffent languagafes based on their different region, and culture patterns.

thousands of languages have developed from what was once a much smaller number.

This collection isn't meant to be serious, but these images would get students to think about how historical events were played out and see the internal social and political dynamics in ways that they can relate to.

As I've said before, a more informed, geo-literate citizenry helps to strengthen U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic efforts because they have a spatial framework within which to organize political, environmental, cultural and economic information. National Geographic recently also produced a video showing how geo-education is important for business professionals as a part of their geo-education community (if you haven't already, join!). This is one way to combat geographic ignorance.

The Brazilian government's 'pacification' initiative has led to drug busts and shootouts in Rio's favelas.

Just a few months before Rio de Janeiro welcomes visitors for the World Cup, and two years before it hosts the Olympics, security within the city remains a major issue. The government currently promotes the policy of "pacification", where security forces engage in raids, drug busts, and even gunfights with suspected gang members. This pacification policy is supposed to pave the way for the development of long-neglected favelas in Rio, Brazil's second-biggest city and home to 11 million people. However, many of the favelas remain in the hands of an army of drug dealers and criminals who are not willing to step down or be pacified.

I believe that absolutely no one is surprised that right before an international event, the hosting city is cracking down on its problem areas. I am skeptical of the Brazilin governments promise to develop the long neglected Favelas. After Rio finishes hosting the 2016 Summer games, the government will once again neglect the Favelas. There will no longer be an incentive for the government to care about the favelas. The eyes of the world will be off the city and things can return to normal. The only losers in this equation are the actual residents of these slums. Once again the promise of better days will ripped from them. An added injury is that there informal economy will have been destroyed. While life in an informal economy is hard by any measure, it is still a way of making a living. The increased police presence will destroy that way of life and replace it with empty promises.

"Mexico City is a giant laboratory of urban morphology. Its 20 million residents live in neighborhoods based on a wide spectrum of plans. The colonial center (above) was built on the foundations of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire. The old city was on an island in Lake Texcoco. The lake was drained to prevent flooding as the city expanded.

Even thought this article is more picture based it shows a interesting example of what Mexico City is all about and how it is laid out. With the different layouts it's just amazing how many different one there are. There are normal standard rectangle and square layouts. One was even built on a drained lake in order to expand the city and prevent the city from flooding. One picture has what looks like a maze of roads and an interesting convergence of where the roads meet up. Overall with so many different layouts it could get confusing to one who may not be from there.

While this scoop may reflect neighborhoods in Mexico, I feel like there is alot to be learned from it. The way human activity greatly affect the geographical landscape is undeniable in these photos. Areas were at one point a beautiful lake, trees and wild life inhabited, are now concrete jungles. In most of these images you cannot even see a patch of grass.

I would be excited to see how specific neighborhood cultures develop considering the close proximity of people. I think that could be a really neat study. Is it like America in the early 1900's, segregation of religions, languages, and ethnic backgrounds? Or are the people close, and friendly?

It is interesting to see how Mexico City is set up, very busy, very populated, very tight. In the satellite photos of Mexico City, you can point out a few interesting things, like one being the different class of people. Some people have landscapes, while other people just have neighbors that live close enough to shake hands with through windows. Something like this goes to show who has money, who does not. You can definitely see grid type patterns in the way housing was built, it appears as if geometry took some play in the shape of the city. The one thing that caught my eye on the satellite map and I find very cool, is the red line of canopies from ambulantes (street vendors).

Although this was a rescooped article from another geography profile, when you clicked on it the link didn't come up. Here is the main link: http://mentalfloss.com/article/52558/107-regional-slang-words. A ton of people use slang words, but can you think of one hundred and seven different ones that you use? I know before I watched this video I couldn't. Just the first seven listed in this video were all describing a can of Dr. Pepper. One term they used that I had never heard was a Tonic. This was used in Boston so it was surprising to not here of it, especially when being so close to RI. Other slangs words varied from calling a grinder a hoogie, saying something is Baltic, meaning cold, and streams being called branches, usually in Wisconsin. It was interesting to see all the different words used to describe everyday items all around the world. We may talk a lot of slang, but I can guarantee that no one has heard of all these different slang terms. Great video produced by a funny guy, really enjoyable.

This was a neat video. Many of the slang words that I knew about were touched upon, but many were very new to me. I never knew the "bubbler" originated in Wisconsin. I thought that was purely a R.I. thing. Watching the video made me think of how different regions were originally settled by different ethnicity groups between the early 1600's and 1800's, which almost surely led to these slangs, in my opinion.

This was a great video describing what people call different items all over the world. Just in Rhode Island alone, people from different parts of the state refer to items in different ways. I think it could have been better if he stuck to the United States only. Its crazy how different people experience things so close in proximity to each other. It also would have been great to show how different regions in the U.S. say certain words. He probably could have made a 30 minute video on that alone and it would have been hilarious.

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